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Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

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Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#31

Post by human20190310 »

panarky wrote: post #9
mastazi wrote: post #2

I’ve been wondering for a while whether I should delete my Twitter account and this piece of news suggests to me that perhaps I should. The sentence “Fomenting political discord” sounds a lot like 1984.

Not the first time I've heard someone argue that state-sponsored agitprop is free speech, while suppressing it on a private platform is somehow dystopian. Ignorance is strength?

I think part of the problem is that Twitter is rooted in American assumptions about propaganda that don't apply globally.

America isn't propaganda-free, of course, but there's enough competing/conflicting propaganda that things kind-of balance out. (Or at least historically they did; increased silo-ing is reducing exposure to conflicting opinions even here).

Opening the platform to countries like Saudi Arabia and China brings fully-functional propaganda operations into the global mix, for which there is no existing competition. Nobody really knows what to do about it.

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#33

Post by GrassFedAltCoin »

I'm amazed at how certain people seem on either side of this debate. This seems to me like an incredibly difficult problem, and I can't see a solution that doesn't involve significant trade offs.

On one hand, silencing people for "inciting unrest" does sound like something a dystopian judge would say before passing sentence. On the other, there is a philosophical argument—and economic incentive—for Twitter to protect its users from harassment and targeted manipulation, especially when it is state-sponsored.

Where the line gets drawn for these definitions seems to be the hardest part.

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#34

Post by dymk »

GrassFedAltCoin wrote: post #33

I'm amazed at how certain people seem on either side of this debate. This seems to me like an incredibly difficult problem, and I can't see a solution that doesn't involve significant trade offs. On one hand, silencing people for "inciting unrest" does sound like something a dystopian judge would say before passing sentence. On the other, there is a philosophical argument—and economic incentive—for Twitter to protect…

A single individual or organized group possessing thousands of accounts used to astroturf a platform is abusive of the platform, regardless of what the message is - banning that sort of activity doesn't seem dystopian.

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#35

Post by mc32 »

jressey wrote: post #24
mc32 wrote: post #8

If they are bots which get paid or are under control of a government, sure, suspend. If these are individuals voicing opinions and not inciting violence, I think they are wrong. People should be able to have disagreeable opinions, even illegal opinions (“pot should be legal”), “the minister in an asshole”. People should not be guilty of wrongthink.

What would you say about an individual whose behavior has been manipulated by bots that are paid by or under the control of a government?

That’s not a bot. A Bernie supporter who goes all in or a Trump supporter who goes all in, or someone who genuinely believes CCP propaganda they are not bots even if their tweets read like they are bot-ish.

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#36

Post by Porthos9K »

jstewartmobile wrote: post #17

about damn time! this "internet" thing--letting ordinary dummies all over the world ( even the ones in shithole countries ) talk to each other--is, was, and always will be bad news . only way to protect these fools from " fake news " is to filter everything through the pure and blameless mouths of demographically-targeted, perfect-haired multimillionaires reading teleprompters. it is the only way! in light of this gl…

Nice sarcasm. Too bad hardly anybody seems to get it.

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#37

Post by dymk »

Kaiyou wrote: post #7
nbst wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the article, the accounts were "actively spreading misinformation and encouraging unrest in politically sensitive climates." Sounds fine to me. Overreaction much?

Inconvenient truths often get mislabeled as misinformation.

What truths are being labeled as misinformation here?

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#38

Post by excursionist »

striking wrote: post #30
mc32 wrote: post #8

If they are bots which get paid or are under control of a government, sure, suspend. If these are individuals voicing opinions and not inciting violence, I think they are wrong. People should be able to have disagreeable opinions, even illegal opinions (“pot should be legal”), “the minister in an asshole”. People should not be guilty of wrongthink.

It's clear from the article that these are the former. A sentence from the beginning of the article: > Today’s removals mark nearly one year of Twitter’s efforts to identify and remove accounts that are spreading political misinformation for the purposes of changing public sentiment — something that has wide-ranging impact beyond simply being annoyed on social media, including not least democratic processes like voti…

I don't see anything in the snippet you reference that makes it clear that these are bots being banned.

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#39

Post by excursionist »

panarky wrote: post #9
mastazi wrote: post #2

I’ve been wondering for a while whether I should delete my Twitter account and this piece of news suggests to me that perhaps I should. The sentence “Fomenting political discord” sounds a lot like 1984.

Not the first time I've heard someone argue that state-sponsored agitprop is free speech, while suppressing it on a private platform is somehow dystopian. Ignorance is strength?

Do these 'state-sponsored' accounts have a footer '- sponsored by X' in their posts? How are you determining what is state-sponsored?

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#40

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

Porthos9K wrote: post #29

If you really cared about preserving your right to freedom of speech, you'd have your own website. You check your rights at the door the second you log in to a platform you don't own or control. Twitter isn't a government agency, but a private corporation protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. They have the right to reject any content you contribute without being liable for any user-generated con…

That's still requiring someone to host you (assuming your not self serving), your ISP to connect to you, and your DNS to continue directing people to you. You're always reliant on someone else's platform to keep you afloat on the internet.
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